in the hospital

Here I am in a hospital bed, waiting for my next dose of pain meds. My ankle is throbbing again and the pain gets unbearable after about 2 hours. The surgery went well but the cast was too tight so I had to come back last night and spend the night and am here all day today for observation and pain management. In some ways, it's nice to have a break from the day to day stuff. I'm catching up on the news and brought my laptop so I can play around on facebook and watch the two chick flicks I brought with me (Atonement and Across the Universe).

I still haven't seen Sierra since she got home last night. We talked on the phone today. She is home watching Zoe and Thomas. I hope to go home tonight after the dr. comes to visit me and makes sure I am ok.

Today is President Obama's 48th bday, happy birthday Mr. President! I heard on the news today that he is planning to address the problem of texting while driving. I think that's a great idea. Too many people are losing their lives because they are texting while driving, and several studies have shown it increases your likelihood of having an accident and is actually more dangerous than drinking while driving.

The health care debate still continues. The Republicans are afraid our health care system will be socialized and government will take over private insurances. I really don't think that is the case. Obama has said in the past he supports a single-payer system, but more recently it's been my understanding that he wants to provide a public option as a competitor to run alongside private insurance and bring the costs down in the private sector. If you like your private insurance you can keep it. It makes sense to me that we should tax all the unhealthy stuff more to help with the costs of health care. People who are obese or who smoke all the time are very expensive to care for, and really they are just doing it to themselves. They don't take care of themselves and then expect the doctors and medicines to fix them. Same with sodas and fast food etc. Diabetes is a major health problem as is heart disease and cancer. People should have an incentive to take care of themselves, eat right, and exercise. Prevention is important.

Even though our health insurance is crazy expensive and has high deductibles and copays, I am so thankful to have it. This stupid ankle injury is going to cost me lots of $$ but at least I am able to get the care I need. I am so thankful Joe was able to take yesterday off to be with me and to bring me back to the hospital and care for the kids.

I think it would be cool to be a doctor. If I could go back in time and do it all over again, I would have started college on a premed program and become a doctor of some sort. I wish I would have figured that out earlier, but oh well. It is what it is, and I am happy with being a mom and a math tutor. I really enjoy working one on one with students and focusing on math since it's my favorite subject and I'm good at it! If I were to become a doctor, I'd be interested in being an ob/gyn or maybe a medical examiner. After I has Sierra in 1993, I worked as a midwife's assistant and was fortunate enough to experience more than 30 home-births with her. Hypothetically, I don't think I'd want to be a midwife because there is so much controversy about it. I'd want to deliver babies in a hospital or birthing center though. That would be really cool. On the flip side, I am also fascinated by medical examiners' jobs although it seems a little gross to be working on dead people. All in all, I think it would be interesting to work in those fields, life and death. If you could go back in time and change something, what would it be?